How Do You Live Without A Heart?
by Dreams Are Meant For Sleeping
Summary: Ronald Weasley has unknowningly had Hermione's heart since the day she met him nine years ago. However, now he's engaged and sadly, not to her. She wants nothing more than to not love him, however unfortunately that is much easier said than done.


**How do you live without a heart?**

**chapter 1: a night in the life of hermione granger**

**written by: Dreams Are Meant For Sleeping (aka: maggie)**

In a small muggle village, in a large Victorian house a young witch restlessly tossed and turned underneath a pink flowery quilt. The decor of the witch's room reflected that of a sophisticated juvenile. On the numerous shelves shiny new spell books and encyclopedias were piled next to tales like Peter Rabbit and Sleeping Beauty. Pens, stationary, quills and parchment were neatly arranged next to a "magic" 8 ball and a teddy bear on a small desk in the corner. On the nightstand another stack of books sat next to a princess pink telephone and underneath a Minnie Mouse alarm clock. The dresser was slightly messy, photographs were scattered among muggle and magic makeup, a hair brush, several letters, a wand and a pamphlet with the top ten ways to maintain "delightful dental hygiene". At the foot of the bed was a padlocked white oak trunk that stored numerous black robes, hats, various books, even more parchment, quills and a particularly elegant blue dress robe. A white cork board hung on the pink walls above the desk. Chocolate frog cards, a plane ticket to France, a head girl badge, a Hogwarts acceptance letter and autographed photos of both Victor Krum and Gilderoy Lockhart dangled from the board by little pink pins. The girl under the quilt dozed restlessly in a brass bed beside a rather large feline.

The sun was not quite up yet, but birds had begun merrily chirping outside the circular window. The half asleep girl innerly laughed at them. It amazed her how outside that window the world was crumbling, and yet those damn birds could still sing as though there was absolutely nothing wrong. She shoved her pink pillow over her ears and accidentally bumped into the large ginger cat. The feline sprung off the bed in anger and fled to a rug in the middle of the hardwood floor.

Her eyes shifted to the clock on the nightstand, Minnie hands read "5:06". She flung the blanket over head and 15 minutes later she had almost nearly fallen asleep for the first time that night, but then she heard it. She was only too familiar to that particular tapping noise. It was so obnoxiously distinct that it was impossible not to know it after six summers of hearing it, however it had been so long since she'd heard it… could she be wrong? She pulled the covers away from her face, opened her eyes and there he was. He looked older than she remembered, grayer and if possible (though not probable) less energetic. She rolled out of bed and slowly walked toward the window. She flicked the latch and pushed the window open. The small owl, fluttered into her room carrying an envelope almost bigger than itself. She smiled at the little creature and removed the envelope from its grasp. She scratched the bird affectionately, offered it some water from the cat's bowl and then sent it on its way.

She looked at the envelope astonished; it was quite obvious this message was not from the owner of the owl. Her name was printed on the front of the _lilac _envelope in loopy feminine writing she had never seen before, instead of the untidy chicken scratch she had become accustomed to.

Filled with curiosity she removed the seal from the envelope and found a matching piece of lilac parchment inside. It read:

_Ronald Weasley and Susan Bones _

_cordially request your presence _

_at Three Broomsticks on the _

_twenty-fourth of February _

_at __two o'clock__ in the afternoon _

_to celebrate their engagement…_

The girl's stomach tied in a knot as blackness slowly engulfed her. She didn't even feel herself fall to the floor.

However, the noise she had made as her thin body hit the floor had awakened her parents sleeping directly below her. Her mother rushed upstairs unsure to what she would find. She nervously turned the brass knob, and her heart nearly shattered as she saw her only child lifeless on the floor in front of her. The mother rushed to her daughter's side and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the girl's chest move up and down.

"Hermione… Hermione…" the woman said as she continuously prodded the girl.

After a few moments the girl began to stir, and flung herself tearfully into her confused mother's arms.

_**a/n- feed back… please?**_

**_--Maggs_**


End file.
